3
A month later
RU’S MOTHER EMERGED from the kitchen the moment he walked in through the front door.
“How did you get on?” She had a bright smile on her face, especially put there for him, but he didn’t smile back.
“They’d already given the job to someone by the time I got there.”
“That’s not fair. They’re not giving you a chance.”
Ru shrugged. He wasn’t going to get bent out of shape over not getting a job handing out leaflets in Andover town centre.
“Would you like a coffee with me?”
Yes, though he’d have preferred to take it to his room. “Thank you.”
Ru followed her to the kitchen. He could see Bela on the roof of the shed and almost as if she’d sensed he was back, she fluttered her wings and turned to face him. Ru waggled his fingers at her and sat at the table.
His mother pulled two mugs from the cupboard. “How many jobs have you applied for now?”
A couple more than when she’d last asked him. “Forty-four.”
“How many interviews so far?”
You already know.“Seven.”
“Is that average for the number of applications?”
He shrugged. He’d applied for a lot of jobs he didn’t even want. Things like washing dishes, cleaning cars, assistant in a butcher’s shop. Though he’d not known if he’d have been able to cope with that last one. As it happened, he’d not even got an interview.
None of his interviews had gone well. Every single person had asked him why he’d not attended secondary school. Saying he’d been home-schooled didn’t stop the questions that followed. Then why hadn’t he sat any exams? What had he been doing since he was sixteen? Ru only realised they suspected he’d been locked up in a Young Offenders Institution after someone actually asked him that. A couple of people had pressed him on his past and he’d pushed to his feet, politely told them to feck off without using those words and walked out. One prospective employer had already known who he was, still asked the question about school, and that was somehow worse. Did they think he’d been lying? It pissed him off.
A lot pissed him off. Sometimes, it was hard to hang onto his temper, but he always did.
“I think you should go to college in September,” his mother said. “Live here with us at home.”
You don’t want to do that.Ru didn’t need the voice in his head telling him that. This wasn’t his home. His parents had burned everything from his childhood, and all of Ink’s stuff too. It might be the Traveller way, but to not keep anything, not even the bear Ru had slept with, seemed heartless.
“I can’t apply for college unless I have GCSEs.”
“I’ve looked into it. You can take a basic numeracy and literacy test. You’re working through those books we got you, aren’t you? If you’re finding them hard, we could get you some tuition.”
Ru tried not to bristle.
“Or if you wanted to do an apprenticeship, you can sit GCSEs or something similar as you train.”
“Train to do what?” He could go in any direction now—almost. He could set the bar as high as he liked, then depress himself even more when he failed to reach it.
“What about being a plumber? They’re always needed. Or a plasterer?” His mother gave a short laugh. “You could practise on our bedroom walls. So many cracks. Or a painter? You like painting.” She put the drinks on the table and sat down.
He liked drawing and painting pictures, not walls. He wanted to take care of horses. But there was no one in the area who needed him in their stables. He’d bought a second-hand bike, taught himself to ride, and visited every one of them. They were full of teenage girls doing the work for free or in exchange for lessons or livery.
“You’re not still thinking about being a vet?”
He heard the incredulity in her voice and it was as if she’d driven a knife into his heart. She and his father had made it clear he had as much chance of doing that as he did of becoming an astronaut. Ru needed support and kind words, not criticism. He was already daunted by the idea of spending two years struggling to get what would need to be top grade A levels, followed by five or six years of hard work before he qualified as a vet. A prospect that was not just daunting, but frightening.
“Even if you passed A levels, there’s no guarantee you’d get offered a place. It’s very competitive. You need to have experience of working with different animals.”
